Blackrock Foundry LiveToday marks the launch of Blackrock Foundry and we've got complete strategy guides, loot info, and raiding guides for all topics. We've also highlighted Warcraft Logs, a great combat logs tool to help you improve in Foundry!

Blackrock Foundry: Clarifications/Known Issues

Rygarius

Over the course of Blackrock Foundry’s testing, we’ve made a handful of changes to encounter mechanics that are not currently being communicated in the Dungeon Journal. The Dungeon Journal will be updated with those changes in Patch 6.1, which is currently on the PTR, but we'd like to share those changes to minimize confusion.

Changes to the encounter that are not conveyed in the current Dungeon Journal, but will be in Patch 6.1:

Hans’gar and Franzok’s Crippling Suplex ability no longer deals damage based on maximum health of the tank who was picked up. It deals a flat amount of Physical damage to both tanks who are thrown together. (663,500 damage on Raid Finder, 862,550 damage on Normal, 1,127,950 damage on Heroic, and 1,327,000 damage on Mythic)

Gruul will instantly regain 50 Rage if his Inferno Slice fails to hit at least 4 targets on Mythic difficulty.

Blackhand will regain energy after using Massive Shattering Smash if it fails to hit at least 4 targets.

Known issues that will be fixed in Patch 6.1:

When grabbed by Hans’gar or Franzok in advance of Crippling Suplex, tanks are currently unable to use abilities. They will be able to use abilities while grabbed in 6.1.

Flamebender Ka’graz’s Singe debuff currently appears as a dispellable magic debuff on unit frames. It is not intended to be dispellable; this display issue will be fixed in 6.1.

We've also got a new video series to share with you--Downtime Tuesday. Every Tuesday, Panser recaps the past week of Wowhead news in a bite-sized format. Wowhead Weekly will continue to be our in-depth show on the weekends; Downtime Tuesday gives you a mid-week refresher!

Blackrock Foundry Normal and Heroic Open

Blackrock Foundry opens on Normal/Heroic on February 3rd. On our hub page, which you can access by clicking on "Blackrock Foundry" on the navigation menu for any page, you'll find guides to all bosses!

Blizzard has clarified that only Blackrock Foundry Normal/Heroic is coming today. No 6.1 content is live today--read more here.

Warcraft Logs

Warcraft Logs is an invaluable tool for raiders everywhere to assess their performance and where they can improve.

How to get started

In order to start tracking your raids, you'll need to create an account. Use that account to log in, then link yourself to your guild if you want to upload logs. If you want to, you can also link your account to your battle.net account to automatically find and track your guild. You can start looking for guilds and uploading logs right away.

As you can see from the image above, many top guilds, including our Mythic Guide writers, Method, use Warcraft Logs to keep track of their raiding performance.

Uploading Logs

In order to upload logs, which you'll need to do to get your data on Warcraft Logs, you'll need to download the client. Follow the steps to install it. The client allows you to upload a log for a raid that is over, log your raid live in real time, or split a log that has a raid in it among other things.

You'll need to ensure you /combatlog in WoW chat in order to start logging your raid to use any of these options. It also allows you to add a description to the report, so that if you're doing attempts of a low healer comp on a tricky boss you can label the report accordingly.

Viewing Logs

To view your uploaded logs, simply head to your guild's page, and click the report from the calendar. You'll be greeted with a page that looks rather like the image below. You can also do this for other guilds, as seen below:

You'll see all sorts of useful information there, Damage Done, Damage Taken, Healing, Interrupts, Dispels and much more. But where WarcraftLogs becomes really unique is in the custom information they provide, created by site manager Kihra.

Even the best players sometimes don't execute perfectly, especially on a relaxed farm night. You can see here that several players were hit by Tectus' Earthen Pillar, and as a result, the Problem page has it noted as "Had Issues". If you visit the log, and compare that to the lower sections for, for example, Earthen Flechettes, you'll see that Method "Passed".

This feature allows you to isolate the mechanics your guild is failing on, and if you have repeat issues, assess what might be causing them and what you can do to remedy the issues.

Where do you rank?

The idea of ranking to those of us who aren't in a top guild is often far out of reach. But, with the ranking method used at Warcraft Logs, you can understand your performance among players in your item level group.

You can see the image to the right, where different players have numbers attributed to them according to their rank in their item level group. So, for example, the top DPS on this list, a protection warrior, despite doing lower DPS than the DPS classes below him, ranks in the top 13% for his spec in his item level bracket for this boss.

The highest DPS in our sample screenshot, at 31k, is a Windwalker Monk. However, he only ranks in the top 62% for his spec and item level bracket for this boss.

This is a very valuable tool for assessing the performance of your raid team, and yourself, within realistic parameters. Unlike healing or DPS meters, you're less subject to mechanics of your class or of bosses. Certainly, it's not an absolutely perfect measure, but a far better one than you'll get elsewhere!

Check Your Replay

The replay system on Warcraft Logs is unique, and can be very useful for isolating positioning-based issues. You can see a screenshot below of Method taking on Kargath Bladefist in Mythic on a farm night, but this doesn't do the replay system justice.

Follow the link to the log itself, and you'll see that it's a fully animated replay of the entire fight from start to finish. It shows you who's who in the key, shows you key moments where players lose health, shows you raid markers, boss spells and new adds as they spawn. You can see who's standing in the wrong place, or doing the wrong thing. Navigate to the log, and click the "Play" button at the bottom left to watch Method's replay. You can view your own by hitting the replay tab at the top right of any boss fight!

In conjunction with the rest of the information on Warcraft Logs, replays are a fantastic tool, especially for positioning-intensive fights and strategies.

Comment by Wowhead

Glad you like them! We aim to have them up a week or so after the raid launches.

Comment by ceylina

on 2015-02-03T15:57:36-06:00

I guess I will just have to be the voice of dissent and say I am against having panser on wowhead.

Comment by lankybrit

on 2015-02-03T17:07:37-06:00

I didn't realize who you were, Panser (didn't recognize you without the iconic pink hair), until I looked you up. I remember meeting you at the wowhead blizzcon party. A special welcome to wowhead now.

Comment by RockwellH

on 2015-02-03T17:45:30-06:00

Panser! welcome to wowhead , as far as wow insider mommy said not to say any thing if you could not be nice

Comment by Cielos

on 2015-02-03T20:31:36-06:00

I guess I will just have to be the voice of dissent and say I am against having panser on wowhead.

Yeah, I'm with you on that one. Don't want anything having to do with her anywhere in my history.

Comment by Nyteyes

on 2015-02-03T21:30:22-06:00

I'm not a fan.

Comment by Interest

on 2015-02-03T23:01:35-06:00

Awesome. I can use the strategy guides as resources for....something. :P

Comment by jrf773

on 2015-02-03T23:48:45-06:00

A little sad to see Panser here, as it reminds me of the demise of WowInsider. Glad she found a gig though. (Well, another gig.)